So I went to another Feed shop. This one was much bigger and seemed to know what he was talking about. I guess as of recently, they are making "Hybrid" grass seeds, like the fescues, bluegrass etc etc with Endophytes in them. Which are toxic to bugs/humans.
Has anyone heard about this? I know endophytes occur naturally in almost all plants. However the seeds of these new ones, are not "natural" in that humans developed new ways for better seed growth.
This makes me worry a little as it seems to be almost all grasses in feed shops have this. The ones that don't are grasses I don't remember seeing on the edible grass lists.
Luckily the guy actually sells feed to the Detroit Zoo here in Michigan and is going to ask the lady who buys all the feed what she thinks.
To add, this is "Endophyte Enhanced" not the natural occuring stuff in the wild. I just havn't heard about it until today.
Also got this off of Wiikipedia. Didnt get into much specifics of how bad it is for reptiles though =/.
"Many economically important forage and turfgrasses (e.g., Festuca spp., Lolium spp.) are infected with fungal endophytes (Neotyphodium spp.) which may improve the ability of these grasses to tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought, as well as improve their resistance to insect and mammalian herbivores."
Just says insect and mammals. The guy at the shop also said that he can't feed anything with Endophyte to his cows, sheep etc etc on his farms. But has no idea about reptiles.
Has anyone heard about this? I know endophytes occur naturally in almost all plants. However the seeds of these new ones, are not "natural" in that humans developed new ways for better seed growth.
This makes me worry a little as it seems to be almost all grasses in feed shops have this. The ones that don't are grasses I don't remember seeing on the edible grass lists.
Luckily the guy actually sells feed to the Detroit Zoo here in Michigan and is going to ask the lady who buys all the feed what she thinks.
To add, this is "Endophyte Enhanced" not the natural occuring stuff in the wild. I just havn't heard about it until today.
Also got this off of Wiikipedia. Didnt get into much specifics of how bad it is for reptiles though =/.
"Many economically important forage and turfgrasses (e.g., Festuca spp., Lolium spp.) are infected with fungal endophytes (Neotyphodium spp.) which may improve the ability of these grasses to tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought, as well as improve their resistance to insect and mammalian herbivores."
Just says insect and mammals. The guy at the shop also said that he can't feed anything with Endophyte to his cows, sheep etc etc on his farms. But has no idea about reptiles.
